Pseudoscience and speculators. Educational communities and programming courses

Winners Academy - one of the educational community, organized by the type of the pyramid using network marketing

Every month, dozens of pyramid schemes for investors who want to multiply their funds (following the example of MMM) open and close every month. Hundreds of communities are successfully operating in social networks, the purpose of which is fraud. The recently closed Daisy Daisy is just the tip of the iceberg. In principle, these are the same financial pyramids, only with “burdens” in the form of goods that the buyer receives at a discount. For example, participants in the pyramid receive iPhones of the latest models for $ 250, provided that after them orders with prepayment will be issued by new buyers.

More prosperous people create more advanced pyramids. For example, shared housing. Exit "promising company" on the stock exchange , where its shares are sold. The release of a new cryptocurrency, the founders of which free of charge nain 10% in advance for themselves.

But the saddest thing is when scammers try to sell (and successfully sell) their product to smart people. Those who seek to improve their education, gain new knowledge, learn a promising high-paying profession. For example, programming or software testing.
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Russians are gradually realizing that in this country there is practically the only way to live with dignity and earn money with your mind - work in the IT industry. If the society has a negative selection about intelligence, then in the IT industry the situation is exactly the opposite. Here, the smarter the person, the more he can achieve. IT workers live in a slightly different reality, which is partially isolated from the surrounding society. Programmers and developers work for foreign customers. In fact, they don’t really care in which country they are physically located. They smile at the vanity of the laity on political and economic issues.

Previously, work in IT attracted the most intelligent and talented guys. Now the situation is changing. The broad masses were gradually drawn into this industry. Thousands of ordinary citizens believe that by paying for courses and paying tuition, they will receive a guaranteed job and high income in a prestigious profession.

If there is a demand, there will be an offer. For this reason, in Russia and other CIS countries, educational courses on programming and the so-called “educational communities”, aimed at the common man, who is striving for new knowledge, began to breed. The creators of the courses are convinced that every person can become a programmer, regardless of intelligence and abilities. The main thing is to be goal-oriented, to work hard and learn-learn-learn, paying for tuition at the established rate.

Frauds of this kind are of different types. The easiest way is to register a company, buy computers, recruit teachers - and post advertisements for courses everywhere. The machine for the production of money is ready. Having received money from students, they can be given beautiful diplomas (which are not needed by anyone).


Graduation diplomas in Java programming, basic level

By definition, fraud is getting someone else’s money by fraud or abuse of trust. Educational communities and “courses” take money for what is available on the Internet for free. If people deliberately conceal information from people that numerous educational materials are available for free on the Internet, and at the same time these materials offer them for money, then this is an obvious fraud, even if there are those who want to buy access or take education courses.

There are also more advanced educational fraud schemes, including the use of network marketing and the structure of a conventional financial pyramid. For example, the IntellFamily (intellfamily.m) scheme, which opened in July 2016, positions itself as an educational community. The participant pays the entry fee of $ 50, but can return the investment through referral links, that is, inviting other participants. He receives his percentage of the entry fees of the participants invited by him, as well as from the following levels of referrals - from those who have been invited by his own referrals, referrals of their referrals, and so on. In general, a typical financial pyramid.


The first level in the structure of Dmitry Fokin (IntellFamily coach from Simferopol), his personal data is in the video

For legislation, this financial pyramid is positioned as an educational community that “sells” a real product — annual access to information materials on the site.

Participants are lured by beautiful ideas, inviting them to the “world of knowledge”. The company conducts weekly classes on a specific topic related to one of the following areas: applied business topics; personal relationships; parenting; wellness practices. The company has a system of rating and selection of coaches, implemented as follows: 1 time in 2 weeks, in one of the sections of the personal account of IntellFamily's patters, about 10-15 announcements are posted on various topics for which community members vote. Those authors who gain the majority of votes are entitled to record a full-fledged school, which is free for community members. And 4 weeks after the placement of a full-fledged school, IntellFamily organizes a full-fledged paid webinar with this author, for which tickets are bought by those who are interested in this topic. The price of paid webinars ranges from 200 to 500 rubles.

Network marketing experts say that educational programs in network marketing are not a figment of IntellFamily. The first such project (ISIF) opened in 2010. Another analogy was the Academy of Victors from Vladimir Dovgan. Of the popular current analogues - Zevs.in. That is, many people want to improve their education - and are willing to pay money for it. Profit is received by incomprehensible people, such as the president of IntellFamily Konstantin Akimov , who is somewhat similar to young Putin.

Network marketing schemes a huge amount. As 10-20 years ago, there are still people who participate in them. Now these are the unfortunate ones who want to improve their lives, become smarter, get an education, take part in the world of high technologies, get a good job and earn money with their minds. Instead of studying the thousands of available educational courses on the Internet, for some reason they decide to pay money to businessmen who earn on “programming courses” or “educational communities”.

The sad thing is that businessmen began to use to enrich the desire of people to self-education, to new knowledge.

Various financial pyramids and network marketing is a gray legal area. Some types of pyramids are explicitly prohibited by law. Others find loopholes. Still others are completely legal. In principle, many participants of the pyramids fully understand what they are getting involved in. For them, this is the same gamble as the stakes in the bookmaker’s office, the game on the stock exchange, the purchase of a lottery ticket from the state or the purchase of a new alternative cryptocurrency. You can win, and you can lose. For an entrepreneur, such a scheme is just one of the interesting types of business. Why not try if network marketing is not prohibited by law?